Elevation: 2,357 ft (overall) 3,579 ft (total)
Time: 1:56 (West Peak) 2:28 (Summit) 3:13 (West Peak) 4:45 (Total)
Trails: Appalachian Trail
New England Hundred Highest Finish!!!
A day after re-hiking Elephant Mountain I was back into Maine to hike my last peak in my quest for the New England Hundred Highest. I picked Baldpate Mountain as a finial peak after talking with other hikers in my travels when discussing what peaks I had left. Multiple other hikers suggested this peak. It would be a nice hike plus would have some of the best views of my final peaks. I'm glad I listened to the other hikers and finished on this peak as I was a great hike. I didn't want to finish when there weren't any leaves left on the trees, so trying to finish before foliage was done was a priority for me. I ended up hiking this peak just before peak foliage I think, but it wound up being a great day for foliage anyways.Like most people, I hiked this peak using the Appalachian Trail from the parking lot in Grafton Notch. This is the same parking lot used for Old Speck as well. You just cross the street near the entrance to the parking lot. The trail starts off nice and gentle after using some elevated foot bridges over a brook. Being the Appalachian Trail, it's in great shape and clearly marked. Pretty quickly the trail starts to climb out of the notch, but there isn't really anything steep for quite a while. The trail is a gentle grade for quite a while until it levels out after passing Hedgehog Hill just north of the trail. Here the trail stays mostly level until the spur to the Baldpate Shelter.
An early section of trail
After the shelter spur the trail does get significantly steeper. While steeper, it still has some small switchbacks and is manageable without being to tiring for most hikers. And since this is the Appalachian Trail, there are also a number is good stone steps that are nice and stable to help you gain this elevation quicker. It felt like this climb up to the West Peak went by pretty quickly to me. Once you reach the West Peak, there is a nice view with a small open area just past this summit. This afforded some good views over to the main peak. Here I took a nice little break and had a conversation with an older couple who was just out for a hike to somewhere nice instead of to any particular peak.
Creative stone steps
From the West Peak I looked at the ledges heading up the main peak wondering where the trail went. I expected that at least some of the trail must go around that is it looked pretty steep. It turns out that the trail goes pretty much right up it on the left side of the open area as you are looking at it.
Dropping down off the West Peak is probably the steepest part of the hike. It even includes a ladder down over one steep, smooth, tall section of rock. There are also some other rocky scrambles on the way down into the col between the peaks. Once down into the col you will come out of the trees to cross a small bog on some foot bridges. This then leads you onto mostly open exposed rock until the main peak. Down in the col there were a few wet or muddy areas to navigate as well. This was probably partly due to yesterday's rain, but based on the tracks leading through the surrounding bushes they are frequently there. While I admit there could be some more bog bridges or stepping stones through here, please try to stay as close to the middle of the trail as possible so that you don't trample the vegetation through here like others have.
View from the west peak
Ladder along the trail
Climbing up to the main peak means starting up the open slabs. There was just a bit of water running down them in places today, but they seemed to have plenty of grip. I imagine that during more heavy rain or in winter this area could get slick though. While this section is very open, there were plenty of routes up the rocks that didn't require any scrambles or overly difficult spots. It's a pretty fun and quick climb up to the summit plateau. After the climb up the rocks the summit mostly levels off. This makes for a nice easy walk to the true high point. There are some small stone walls built along the sides of the trail to help keep people off the fragile vegetation through here.
Climbing the exposed rock of the main peak
Interesting layers of rock on the ascent
I'm not much for celebrations, so when I reached the summit, I didn't really have anything planned nor did I come up with anything special to do to celebrate. It was nice however to have the summit all to myself while I was there. After a nice break and plenty of pictures, I headed back down to the large cairn just before the climb down into the col. I think the views are better here so I took another long break and more pictures. I'm not really one for selfies, but I decided I should probably have at least one picture of myself on on peak number 100.
Baldpate summit
View from the summit
View west near the summit
On the summit of #100
I still had plenty of time so the hike back down was fun and casual. It was a great day and I was in a good mood. I made the short side trip to the Baldpate Shelter, but decided not to do the loop over Table Rock. Unfortunately though, near the upper junction with the Table Rock Trail my foot got snagged on a broken root and I fell to the ground. I tried to catch myself with my trekking poles, but one of them went into a small hole and bent. When I straightened it back out, it broke just as I expected. It was a bit of a bummer to break my pole since I think I have used the same ones for almost all of my hundred highest peaks as well as multiple other 4Ks, but they have had a lot of miles put on them and I think I got my monies worth.
Baldpate from the col between the peaks
Baldpate shelter
My broken trekking pole
Foot bridges just before reaching the road again
Once back to my truck I set down my gear and changed into some dry comfy clothes. The one thing I did have ready as a way to celebrate my finish though was a giant brownie that I bought before making the trip to Maine for the weekend. I didn't plan to eat the whole thing as it was pretty big, but I did make sure to eat a pretty good portion though. Before too long I put everything into the truck and started the drive home. It was still another 4 hours or more until I would be home.
A giant brownie to celebrate my finish
Google Earth representation of the hike
For all the pictures from the hike, just go to my gallery on SmugMug
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